Finally! I can’t believe I got this tutorial completed. I think this is the longest video tutorial I have uploaded thus far. First, I just want to thank my sister Linda for being my foot model and my daughter “G” for making her presence known at 6:19 in the video. She was actually running around me while I filmed and almost knocked over my work area — that would not have been good:( Overall, this tutorial was a good challenge in every way. Because of the $50.00 budget, I really had to get creative. And as usual, filming and editing does not come naturally to me but it is something I have grown to enjoy. Feel free to view it below:

If you are new to my blog, Welcome and thank YOU for visiting! I am working on the $50.00 Simple Wedding Gown Challenge. My goal is to stay at or under $50.00 (before taxes) and assuming people have the basic supplies – scissor, sewing machine, thread/needle, glue gun/glue sticks, iron, and a measuring tape. However, my true goal is to inspire you to get creative.Below is the tentative budget breakdown:

$10.00 Hair Adornment/Jewelry

$15.00 Shoes

$25.00 Dress (not including undergarments:)

The budget breakdown may change but the goal is to stay at or under $50.00

Went over $0.28 but I’m definitely okay with that, I’ll just take it from the jewelry budget or the dress budget:) A glue gun/glue sticks were used for adhering the embellishments. NOTE: For longterm use, I recommend using a stronger adhering agent like the E6000 glue.

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Well, guess what I found at the Walmart near my parents’ home?

Yes! $1.00/yard white stretchy fabric…more to come. The dress will take awhile to complete but please be patient, I promise it will be worth the wait. In the meantime, I do have few projects I need to complete and a couple of tutorials lined up. Stay tuned!

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If you missed any part of the challenge, please feel free to visit the previous posts:

If you are new to my blog, Welcome and thank YOU for visiting! I am currently working on a $50.00 Simple Wedding Gown Challenge. My goal is to stay at or under $50.00 (before taxes) and assuming people have the basic supplies – scissor, sewing machine, thread/needle, glue gun/glue sticks, iron, and a measuring tape. However, my true goal is to inspire you to get creative. Below is the tentative budget breakdown:

$10.00 Hair Adornment/Jewelry

$15.00 Shoes

$25.00 Dress (not including undergarments:)

The budget breakdown may change but the goal is to stay at or under $50.00

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Greetings Everyone!

As you can see, I’m still drawn to the pyramid trims and just had to add it to the shoe design. This is a pretty big transformation if I do say so myself. What do you think?

Remember how it looked before?

While designing the shoes, I had a hard time sleeping at night. The shoes had morphed into so many designs in my head and my mind would not let me rest. Remember, I had to work within a $15.00 shoe budget so I had to get extremely creative with the supplies I had or had to purchase.

Before I finalized the design, I did play around with the embellishments. Below are a few ideas I played with…you may even like one of them better:)

For the Sweet Bride

Spray painting the shoes a metallic gold

Well, I am currently working on the video tutorial for the shoe refashion so it will be coming out the end of November or early December. Also, I would like to thank the Gentlemen for being so patient. I do have a few tutorials lined up for them and they will be coming out soon. As for the shoe budget, here it is….

Greetings and thank you for visiting! I am currently working on a $50.00 Simple Wedding Gown Challenge. My goal is to stay at or under $50.00 (before taxes) and assuming people have the basic supplies – scissor, sewing machine, thread/needle, glue gun/glue sticks, iron, and a measuring tape. However, my true goal is to inspire you to get creative. Below is the tentative budget breakdown:

$10.00 Hair Adornment/Jewelry

$15.00 Shoes

$25.00 Dress (not including undergarments:)

The budget breakdown may change but the goal is to stay at or under $50.00 for the Greek-inspired Wedding Attire.

Well, this past Saturday I took a Faith Finances class through our Marriage Ministry Program (Thank you to my dear friends Hang D. for the opportunity and Dr. Jerri V for introducing me to all this:) Ever since my husband went back to school, I have taken a more active role in our Family Finances and it has become a BIG interest of mine. Hopefully, if God-willing, I can one day help Newly Engaged Couples and the Newlyweds on Family Finances. Sorry for the little side track, but how does that tie into the $50.00 Wedding Gown Challenge you may ask? Well first off, in between the class sessions, I went shoe shopping and second, it is about budgeting. So……feel free to join me

In between my class sessions and after the class, I visited a few big box stores where the chances of finding a pair of $15.00 shoes were high. Because I had a fixed time frame between class sessions, I was determined not to get sidetracked like I normally would:) ok I admit it, I did get side tracked a few times….but that is what happens when I walk into a Target or Walmart:) lol! But in all seriousness, almost every store I visited had shoes for sale under $15.00. I believe the sales are due to retail shops preparing for the fall/winter season so they are trying to get rid of their spring/summer items. Ladies, I hit all the CLEARANCE shoe sections.

When shoe shopping, I wanted something with a heel, something comfortable, and something I can refashion if needed. So here is the adventure…

Walmart…

Saw a whole section of shoes on clearance for $10.00 but nothing appealing…tank tops for $2.00. really?!?! Got one for the challenge;)

Target…nothing. So I scanned the home decor section and sauntered by the office supplies and then the jewelry department…focus Ann!

Payless….

I like platforms and that it is gold but wanted something with heels…nice price btw but next…

nice gold shoes…Had the modern Greek/Romanesque feel but they were flat…

Kohl’s…I don’t usually shop here but I was glad I walked in that day. I asked a worker where the shoes were and walked straight to the clearance section. Because I am short, I stood on my tippy toes to briskly scan the shoes on the higher rack. Finally, I spotted something decent.

The shoe had a heel. It had a soft padding in the shoe for comfort. It was re-fashionable. It had a subtle metallic gold to it. And the exciting part…it was $12.99! I was smiling all the way to the register because I found decent shoes in the price range I was looking for:)

And if that wasn’t enough to smile about, when I got to the register, the Sales Associate told me there was an additional 25% off sale that day….AND on top of that, she gave me a Friends and Family Discount. WHAT?!?! I was elated and full of giddiness. I told her that I had to take a picture of the register screen so you can see. The Sales Associate laughed at me but that’s okay, I was beaming with happiness and and having so much fun:) Now I am really excited for this project and how it is slowly turning out. Guys, the deals are out there!!!! I guess I never thought it would be like this but it’s out there!!!!

So here are the shoes ready to be restyled when the time comes. I am still working on the Hair Adornment Tutorial.

$7.79 before taxes for shoes. Wow, now that’s what I call a deal! Well, stay tuned for more of the challenge:) Do you have any tips for shoe shopping and getting great deals? Feel free to share:)

If you missed any part of it, please feel free to visit the previous posts:

I just wanted to share some Wedding DIY projects from a very talented Bride-to-be, SONYA. She is a new Facebook Friend and I was just amazed when she sent me photos of her accessories. I know how much time and dedication it takes to make one custom fascinator or a custom sash so I knew she had put a lot of heart into her creations. I asked if I could share her works and hope that it would inspire or help another Bride out there (cause she inspired me!)…so check it out!

I asked her a few questions and she replied graciously with an answer:) So here is the Q&A…

Q: What inspired you to DIY (do it yourself)? SONYA: I have always been a diyer. I grew up crafting with my mother and I used to be a craft director at a local horse camp where I helped every summer. One drive to diy a lot of my wedding decorations was to achieve the look I really wanted and to truly personalize it. And it’s typically cheaper! My motto has always been “If you can make it, don’t buy it.”

Q: Which Youtique Bridal Tutorials did you use? SONYA: I used the Serena tutorialfor most of my flowers and modified it for others. I attached the flowers to my wire floral stems by curling one end with pliers and sandwiching it between two pieces of felt and lots of hot glue, then glue the flower to the stem base. (flower bouquet below)

Q: How did you create the corset and monogram on your bouquet? SONYA: The corset/monogram feature of the bouquet is actually a separate bouquet wrap that I created to go over the ribbon handle. It is completely removable. To create it I cut a piece of 4 inch ribbon to the correct length and hemmed the sides to keep it from fraying. The corset loops are made with 1/8″ ribbon that I hot-glued in loops on each end. For the monogram, I wrote several D’s until I found one I was happy with. I then recreated it by hand-placing each gem one at a time onto the bouquet wrap. After that, I hand-placed the green gems to form the heart that interlocks with the D. It is hard to see in the pictures but on the back of the bouquet wrap is a line of clear gems down each edge. Lastly, I laced up my wrap with some of the ribbon I had left over from making my garters (1).

(1) These are the garters I made. The one on the top is the one I’ll be wearing; the other is my toss garter.

(2) The bottom of the bouquet was slightly more challenging as it was uneven. I cut a piece of cardstock to the size I needed and hot-glued it to the bottom. The “happily ever after” is a pendent I found at Hobby Lobby. I just removed the pendent piece and hot-glued it on, then glued crystal around the edges to create a finished look in case someone saw the bottom of my bouquet.

(3) This is one of the flower I’ll be putting on my blue sash. I plan to add two more but I’m not sure if I want to make them in the blue or the white yet. Owls are my absolute favorite animal!! And I’ve been trying to find small ways to feature them and some lovebirds into the wedding details. The flower center is one fine example of a small detail. It’s another pendent from Hobby Lobby that I removed the pendent loop from. I glued it to the center of my Serena flowerthat I will be adding to my sash.

(4) The earrings were my great-grandmother’s screw-back earrings. I, however, have gauged ears and can’t wear regular earrings so I removed the backing and bonded them to a plain pair of gauges so I can walk down the aisle with them. I’m debating adding a dangle feature to them as well but I have six more months to decide.

Q: How did you gem the shoes? SONYA: The shoes were gemmed one tiny gem at a time. I use Jolee’s Jewels 3mm flatback Swavorski crystal and glued them with “Create Your Style” crystal glue pen. (This glue pen has been my saving grace. I’m on pen number 3!) They are a pair of Michael Antonios. I gemmed the white parts of the heel and the platform.

SONYA: This is my ring bearer pillow. All handmade. The center flower is eight inches in diameter.

Q: When is your wedding date and how far in advance did you start to insure that you will be complete by your wedding date? SONYA: My wedding date is April 28th, 2013. After I had so much fun making the first flower from the Serena tutorial(this was about mid-September) I started looking for other ways I could use these flowers in the wedding. I have just under six months and I can’t wait! Now I just need to make my four bridesmaid bouquets, their sash accessories, headpieces, jewelry, and my flower girl headpiece and sash accessory….and I’ll be finished….until I find something else that I want to DIY.

Q: What are your wedding colors? SONYA: My wedding colors are turquoise and chartreuse but I’m also incorporating some black into the wedding. The best part of all my diy projects is they will find a place in my home afterwards. My entire home is in shades of blues and greens. They’re my favorite colors to surround myself with and I find them rejuvenating and soul-soothing.

Q: How did you meet your fiance? SONYA: My fiance’s name is James “JD” Dean. He’s absolutely amazing and has been very supportive of my dining room table craft takeover. To be completely honest I don’t remember how we met. I just remember instantly being close. We were best friends for many years and had actually lived together. One day we kissed and it was like fireworks. I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else and he helps me understand why it’s never worked with any other person. He truly is my other half and my soul mate.

Thank you so much SONYA for sharing! I wish you & JAMES a joyful journey to the alter.

Everyone, I hope this inspires YOU to create something EXTRAordinary:)

If you would like to be inspired by the SERENA Flower as well, please see the tutorial below: